Boulder council weighs $24-per-household annual transportation tax

Officials outline $3M budget gap, board warns of dire consequences

Jack Hudson, of WL Contractors, uses a hammer to pound in a post for a safety fence while working to move a traffic light pole on Tuesday near the intersection of Arapahoe Avenue and 27th Street. Boulder leaders are considering a new tax to help pay for city road maintenance.
(
Jeremy Papasso
)

CORRECTION: The headline on this story initially referred to a possible per-business tax, not per-household.

A little more than a year ago, the Boulder City Council rejected a proposal by transportation officials to impose a new fee on utility bills to pay for improving roads and bridges.

Those same officials were back on Tuesday night to ask the leaders -- including two new council members -- to reconsider. And this time, they came armed with the recommendations of a community task force and an ominous warning from the Transportation Advisory Board.

By the numbers

About Boulder's transportation system:

26,790: Traffic and directional signs

675: Lane miles of roadway

474: Miles of sidewalk

200: Acres of medians

150: Miles of bike paths

145: Traffic signals

32: Bridges more than 20 feet in length

18: Flashing pedestrian crosswalks

12: Regional bus routes

Source: City of Boulder

Boulder's transportation department has identified a funding gap of about $2.5 to $3 million per year that needs to be filled just to maintain streets and bridges at their current levels.

Michael Gardner-Sweeney, the city's transportation planning and engineering coordinator, told the council during the study session that funding for transportation projects has dwindled while the cost of materials and services have increased sharply over the years.

"We have decreasing resources," he said. "In 2001, we had $22.5 million available to fund transportation, and in 2010, that pie had shrunk to $20.8 million."

And, he said, the purchasing power of those dollars has decreased by about 40 percent.

Filling the funding gap through a transportation maintenance fee or tax would cost each Boulder household an estimated $24 per year, while businesses would pay an average of $327 per year -- although the cost to businesses would vary widely.

"The rates would be based on the amount of traffic that different properties generate," Chris Hagelin, acting program manager for Go Boulder, said of the commercial rate.

The city has the legal authority to impose a maintenance fee, but previous councils have been apprehensive about not taking the measure to voters in the form of a tax. On Tuesday, the current leaders generally supported a tax measure.

"We're falling further and further behind on maintenance," said Councilman Macon Cowles, who also suggested charging parents of open-enrolled students at a higher rate since they tend to drive more.

But Councilman George Karakehian said he worries about creating a "new bureaucracy" to manage a tax that includes incentives or disincentives, and instead suggested the city look at changing existing practices, such as increasing the cost of parking tickets.

"That might be a funding source that might not be so politically incorrect or hard to manage," he said.

Councilwoman Suzanne Jones said that if the city is prepared to wait a year to go to voters, the council should examine what it would cost to implement a community-wide Eco Pass program as well.

A city task force recently developed two options should the council decide to go to voters. One option would put the measure on the ballot this fall. The other would push the project onto the ballot in 2013 or later.

Transportation officials are recommending the council wait until next year to go to voters, but the Transportation Advisory Board is asking for swifter action.

In a recent letter to the council, the board wrote that even with the passage of a bond measure in November that will pay for some critical transportation projects, the city does not have enough money to maintain its roads.

"Action must be taken now," the group wrote. "TAB believes we are at a tipping point. Without positive action to fund (operations and maintenance), Boulder effectively chooses a very different future -- a future of shrinking revenues for the existing systems and lost opportunities for modest improvements."

A recent city poll found that Boulder voters are at least warm to the idea of a tax to support transportation maintenance, with about 53 percent of survey takers saying they would vote for one. But pollsters say a tax measure needs at least 60 percent support in early polling to be successful.

Some of the leaders also expressed concerns Tuesday about asking voters to approve a transportation tax in the same year that the Regional Transportation District might also ask for a sales tax increase to pay for the FasTracks program. Most of the council members said they agree with putting off a potential ballot measure until next year, but to continue working on the measure.

The council will talk again about what measures to put on this year's ballot later this spring.

The city's Capital Investment Strategy committee recently recommended against going to voters this fall with a separate bond measure that would raise taxes to pay for new capital improvements throughout Boulder -- such as building a civic center or a library branch in north Boulder.

The council hasn't made a final decision on that measure, but individual council members have said a bond measure isn't likely to make this year's ballot. That could set the stage for two potential tax increases on the 2013 ballot.

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